Perfect Chemistry
by Neon Dandelion
Summary: Their love story begins when Ty Lee's bangs go up in flames. Prequel to Liar in a Little Plaid Skirt for #TyzulaTuesday prompts.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This is a standalone-but-prequel to Liar in a Little Plaid Skirt that I'm making for #TyzulaTuesday. It probably won't be super long, but it's the story of how they went from enemies to in love. I originally just made a oneshot to flesh out Azula's chemistry anecdote, but I can't just keep things oneshots, apparently.

* * *

 **Perfect Chemistry**

* * *

 **Chapter One - Dry**

* * *

Ty Lee lights her hair on fire in Chemistry class twice.

Which is how she falls in love with Princess Azula, so it's kind of important.

The week before the first incident, it's a dry autumn. Ty Lee is outside, cleaning dried yellow grass off of her new heels. It's the worst possible weather for the start of the school year, and Ty Lee would be trying to run home if it weren't for the looks she is getting.

The Fire Nation has droughts and monsoons and that is it for weather. This year, they are facing a terrible drought.

Sozin High has losers and winners and that is it for popularity. This year, they are about to have that balance upset because Ty Lee is going to stop giggling and blending in.

It is time to be noticed.

Except for the fact that she is chapped and dehydrated. When her hair, lips and skin are crying out for water, it kind of bums out her glow.

"If I didn't, like, sleep in my lipstick would they be better?" Ty Lee asks Yue, the sweetest cheerleader on the team.

Yue shrugs. "It'll probably clear up. I have some chapstick, if you want."

She's sweet. She's so sweet and Ty Lee loves being a cheerleader, loves being her new, reinvented self.

It is the fall after the summer she became pretty and she has never been so happy before in her life.

* * *

That first period, however, Azula is extremely unhappy.

Mrs. Yugoda seems to think it is appropriate to just pair people up for the labs. And she seems to have a sense of humor about it, because she has insisted on matching people with their enemies, while claiming that they _cannot switch_.

Azula? Azula is stuck with Ty Lee now, which, rules or not, she is going to escape. She goes to the teacher after class and sits down across from her.

"I can't be with that girl. I will fail your class because of her and I can't afford to fail any classes. Seeing as I will rule over this great Empire one day," Azula smoothly says, but Yugoda is clearly not impressed. She seemed so _kindly_ when Azula first met her, but that is obviously a joke.

"In your future life, and especially a political career, you have to work with people who are difficult. I'll notice if she makes a mistake and I promise you will be graded fairly. But I can't let you switch. I'm sorry," Yugoda says in a sugary sweet voice that makes Azula want to scream.

Azula seizes her bag and walks out of the classroom while attempting not to burn down Sozin High.

Once Azula makes it to her locker, Mai is predictably unsympathetic. "I got stuck with her awful friend. She apparently hates me for tormenting her in middle school."

"We did not torment anyone. That's absurd, and her fault for being such a weird nerd," Azula says, and Mai does not protest that faulty logic. _Her fault for suddenly becoming so attractive. The only thing she didn't change is her braid._

Mai does manage to defuse the situation with, "It's one class. You like being Ty Lee's partner better than listening to Katara be preachy in Fire Nation History."

"I do," Azula admits.

* * *

Azula does not become any kinder about the situation with Ty Lee over the course of four hours. Mai _does_ get bored of hearing about it after about five minutes.

"She did get hot," Azula admits as she sits at lunch. One of them had to say it.

"You're into her, aren't you?" Mai sighs.

Azula scoffs at the notion. "That's hysterical. I could not be _into_ her, even if she did start wearing make-up and dressing for her figure."

"You like her figure," Mai comments as Ty Lee knocks over her drink and starts trying desperately to dry up the ever-spreading puddle. Azula could _not_ love that if she were the last person on the planet.

"Anyone would. That does not mean that I want to date her. I said she got hot. That doesn't change the fact that she is currently on the floor covered in purple stains," Azula says. Mai shakes her head.

"You're protesting pretty hard," Mai says coolly, snapping the lid off of a box of berries.

Azula just rolls her golden eyes and pretends to get a text.

* * *

In the last minutes of lunch, Ty Lee is in the incense-scented-freshly-painted ladies' room with paper towels. This is the _worst_. She spent a fortune on these clothes that so perfectly accented the wonders of successful puberty.

Suki tosses her a gym shirt.

"You're kidding," Ty Lee squeals in horror.

"You're not acting like yourself," Suki says with her arms crossed. Ty Lee's purse dangles from the head cheerleader's clenched fist.

" _You_ were the cheerleader first," Ty Lee snaps shrilly.

Suki counters, " _You_ were real once upon a time. Do you want to be sticky and wet all day, or dry and in my gym shirt?"

"I'll look like I'm not wearing pants."

"Doesn't that sound like a plus?"

Ty Lee purses her lips and tries not to cry. "Please stop."

Suki sighs. "I'm sorry. I'm being mean and I shouldn't act like that. I brought you your hairspray too."

Ty Lee grabs the shirt and her purse. "You unhappy about yearlong chem partners too?"

"Yes. I want to destroy them," Suki admits, striding over and poking at her teeth in the crystalline mirror.

Ty Lee somehow takes that seriously. "I think Azula is too good at fighting. And burning things."

Suki laughs and then chokes on the chemicals speeding out of a pink mini aerosol can. "With that amount of hairspray holding your braid together, you'd go up like a match."

"I'm going to get her to date me," Ty Lee announces.

Suki laughs. Then stops laughing when Ty Lee just smiles.

"Why?" whispers Suki.

Ty Lee is proud of her decision, and will not let Suki's scared expression kill her confident aura. "Because I knew I had some kind of destiny when I had make-over summer. My destiny is to make a girl who was so hateful and mean and stuff fall in love with me."

Suki thinks that is extremely gross.

Ty Lee thinks it is the most exciting part of the new school year.

* * *

 _ **to be continued next Tuesday**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two – Lipstick**

* * *

Being pretty is like winning the lottery every day.

Ty Lee does not know why she did not do this earlier. She looks in the mirror after her transformation and thinks _'Thank the spirits I'm pretty'_ every time she passes one. All along, Ty Lee had it underneath her desperation to stand out. She was a goth or a hipster or intentionally nerdy and buried herself in loud clothes and hid herself so that she _would not be normal_.

But pretty. Pretty. Ty Lee had no idea that it wouldn't make her disappear; it made her stand out like never before. And that is all Ty Lee has ever wanted. To be noticed.

Everyone noticed how she changed over the summer.

Including Azula, who is leaning on her locker before Chemistry and complaining to Mai, "Just because she started wearing lipstick doesn't give her a right to think she's not… that weirdo who talked about auras and being able to sense ghosts."

"You weren't nice to her about that."

"I've never been nice to her."

"You know that's a lie. You just started wearing lipstick first. Oh, and went off to the mountains for _rehabilitation_."

"It wasn't drug rehab," Azula snaps, feeling like she says this much too often. "My father just wanted me to better fit the image of crown princess after losing Zuko."

"Mhm." Mai will let Azula get away with that one because she does not want to discuss the alternative. "This class should be fun," she adds sarcastically.

Azula glares at her.

* * *

Mrs. Yugoda does not have a clock in her classroom.

So Ty Lee has to pull the trick in which she reaches into the front pocket of her pink backpack and pretends to be fishing around for her lipstick tube. She taps her phone while doing it and sees the time staring back at her. Ten minutes. Yikes. Only ten minutes into this ninety minute class. She pulls out the lipstick and puts it on her lips, continuing to be paying attention.

Azula watches the trick and has to admit that it is not as stupid as she would expect. Maybe Ty Lee is not a complete idiot—at least when it comes to using lipstick as an excuse to see what time it is.

"You will be doing your first project. I expect that you will find time to work with your partner," Mrs. Yugoda says and Azula thinks that the woman is just trying to torture her students. "It will be about…"

Ty Lee looks down at her empty notebook page and starts scrawling a note on it. She uses her pink glitter pen because it is the only one that she remembered to bring to class. Azula's expression when Ty Lee passes it to her is completely delicious. Ty Lee brushes her hand on Azula's bare knee, just about the knee-socks and the princess does not even react.

Sigh. Frustrating.

Oh, but the princess absolutely reacts to what it says. It is fun to be pretty now.

Azula just folds it up and lets it flutter to the floor.

She has no interest in:

 _Saturday night sounds fun, doesn't it?_ with 'I's that are dotted with hearts.

* * *

That afternoon, Azula looks over her shoulder in the girls' locker room.

Why did she do that? Why?

She curses herself silently because Ty Lee is looking back at her before quickly looking away. Ty Lee wonders how exactly should initiate the romance thing when Azula is the type who could have her pick. That is pretty obvious by matching lace. Who wears matching lace underwear? Ty Lee feels ridiculous because she didn't put much thought into her underwear… ever in her life.

Gym uniforms are bullshit. Especially when Ty Lee only just figured out how to pull one off and Azula stands in front of the mirror for ten seconds before resuming her utter perfection.

Ty Lee is gorgeous and her wicked scheme is unexpected, but everyone knows that Azula is uncomfortably perfect. She wears heels with her uniform and lipstick to gym class. Whatever; she is probably a cylon.

"Do you want to fuck her or be her?" Suki asks semi-scathingly and Ty Lee nearly punches her.

"Don't ruin this," Ty Lee viciously whispers into her best friend's ear. Suki takes _off_ her make-up for gym class.

"You mean your horrible plan?" Suki cocks an eyebrow.

"Yes." Ty Lee quickly catches herself. "I mean, _no_. My plan is great. It's already starting to work. I'll have her in no time."

"Good luck," Suki says honestly. She _would_ like to see Azula knocked down a peg or two; the perfection gets grating.

Not that dating Ty Lee would make her imperfect, but Azula head over heels for someone she used to torment would be hysterical.

So long as Ty Lee does not fall head over heels for someone who used to torment her.

* * *

"Make her eat her words," Mai says dryly while sort-of-running on the school track, because she cannot hold out on avoiding advice any longer.

Azula glares at her for no reason. Mai does not run. Azula runs. But Azula is going at Mai's pace in order to glare at her and bitch about the note Ty Lee gave her.

"How?" Azula orders. Mai sighs and slows down.

"Tell her that Saturday night would be nice," Mai says and Azula scoffs. "Do it."

"No," Azula says, even though she is already beginning to reconsider.

She could break Ty Lee in a single night. It would not be remotely difficult.

Ty Lee is too easy for it even to be humane.

* * *

Azula is adjusting her make-up when Ty Lee walks up beside her. They eye each other in the mirror, but don't turn to face each other.

"I was thinking," Azula purrs as she pops the lid back on her red lipstick, "that Saturday night _does_ sound nice. Do you have anything planned?"

Ty Lee's expression is priceless.

Somehow Mai was right. Impressive, Azula has to admit.

"N-no." Ty Lee hates herself for losing her cool. She liked watching Azula panic, but she does not like watching Azula snap back from it. "I mean…"

She wants to say sexy things, but thinks she would sound stupid.

"Well, tell me when you decide. _You're_ the one who offered that time to work on our project, aren't you?" Azula says in a fake-sugar tone.

Ty Lee stares after her as Azula leaves to go to her next class.

This get-together should be interesting, now shouldn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN:**_ _I don't have a ton of time this week thanks to the cruelty of homework, so this one's a drabble._

* * *

 **Chapter Three – Lace**

* * *

Sexy underwear means overwhelming confidence.

Ty Lee does not think that a girl exists who feels differently on the matter. She certainly knows it to be true. But her sexy underwear is for a much more diabolical purpose than pretending she will be able to pass her math test.

She rolls up her skirt to make it shorter before Chemistry. No one notices, but she knows she will have to discreetly roll it down if any of the teachers notice how her lace panties are nearly showing. She could probably complain something about _slut shaming_ and protest, but she would rather avoid all of that and start working on her wicked schemes.

Azula pays as little attention to Ty Lee as she can. But Ty Lee bumps their knees together. Azula looks. Oh, Ty Lee was afraid that Azula wouldn't.

The princess's eyes linger and Ty Lee wants to scream from excitement. So easy!

"Anything you would like to share, ladies?" asks Mrs. Yugoda.

Ty Lee's smile vanishes.

"Oh, Ty Lee was just attempting a very pathetic strip-tease under the desk. Unsurprising for her." Azula winks and no one notices. "Or I could just be misreading due to the fact that her skirt is several inches shorter than allowed."

 _So is yours_ , Ty Lee wants to snap, but she keeps her mouth shut.

"Both of you come see me after class." Mrs. Yugoda then continues her lecture.

Wonderful.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four — Frantic**

* * *

"Perhaps you two can become civil with each other if you spend the next six Saturdays together," says Yugoda slowly. "I think your behavior is deserving of those detentions."

Her reasoning for Saturday is because the probending coaches would get Azula out of anything after school; they want her on their team too desperately. But they can't demand to keep her Saturday mornings free.

"That is unnecessary," Azula protests, but she closes her mouth when she sees Yugoda's face. It is the same one she got when she asked to be relieved of her dreadful partner. "Perhaps you could just break us apart and make sure we are never close to each other."

Yugoda stares at Azula with a cocked eyebrow.

"I will see you on Saturday from eight to ten."

The two girls turn and go to collect their abandoned things.

Azula can feel herself panicking.

Ty Lee is pretty lackadaisical about the whole deal.

Azula's father will kill her. She cannot believe this, and she does not know how to tell him. As she frantically gathers her things and watches people stream into the hallways, she feels her heart racing. The moment she thinks she has it together, she drops everything on the floor. It bursts like a grenade and the shrapnel of school supplies sprays everywhere.

The unlikeliest of people starts calmly picking up the pencils and textbooks.

 _Ty Lee_. Of course she is unfazed by these Saturday detentions. She probably is only disappointed that she cannot go _shopping_ for a month. Azula will lose everything she has and her father might even send her away for disappointing him, like he did to Zuko more than once.

"I got it," Ty Lee says, dropping things into Azula's bag. "Wow, you have a clean backpack. That's so weird!"

Azula stands up, looks at her and ponders the many responses that fly through her head.

She decides to say nothing and slings her bag over her shoulder, and walks out of the classroom. Ty Lee sighs as she gazes after the princess.

Then she runs after the princess, frantically trying to catch up with her. Damn, Azula can run fast. Ty Lee is huffing and puffing when she finally grabs Azula's arm outside on the front lawn of Sozin High.

"What do you want from me?" Azula demands and Ty Lee finds herself face to face with blue fire.

"Nothing."

"So, you chased me like I was on fire for _nothing_?" Azula does not quench the flames, but Ty Lee does not step back either.

"I'm sorry. It's really my fault what happened. I didn't mean to get us stuck in Saturday detentions."

"It does not bother me. I will probably get out of it anyway. My father is an emperor, after all."

Ty Lee cocks an eyebrow. "You're still shaking."

"Yes. I have to get home before the school informs my father of what happened. I think my shaking is understandable. Not that I need to explain myself to _you_ or anyone else. Just because you got hot and learned to dress properly does not mean my feelings towards you have changed."

"I don't even know what your _feelings towards me_ are!"

"Mostly… disgust. Being told to work with _you_ is like being told I have to eat raw sea prunes. You're essentially a sea prune."

"Why? What did I ever do? We used to be friends."

Azula puts out the fire, but she is not as moved as Ty Lee hoped she would be. "Used to. I already said I do not have to explain myself. Now get out of my way."

Ty Lee steps aside, because she cannot win this fight, no matter how much she wishes she could. Azula will never be her friend again, but Ty Lee is pretty sure she isn't enough of a _sea prune_ to Azula to resist sleeping with her.

That seems to be how it goes.

Azula got pretty first. She has to understand what it is like.

Ty Lee then thinks about Suki and has a bitter realization that Azula did what Ty Lee is doing to Suki to Ty Lee, which is super complicated sounding, but it's a gross sensation.

She _is_ a sea prune, but not for whatever Azula thinks.

She _is_ a sea prune, because she has done something awful to her best friend.

Suki was her _only_ friend before she got pretty.

Ty Lee has a _lot_ of apologizing to do, but not to _Azula_.

How could she have gotten so obsessed with ruining the princess that she started to ruin the one true friendship of hers?


End file.
